Troubles of an Ignorant Society
by Riviea
Summary: A society, the private school and a whiny girl spirited off to the wrong school. How could this all add up to Ren becoming a baby sitter, Anna growing possessive, and Hao becoming... amused? [Please Read and Review. Possible OC pairings, and YohxAnna]
1. News she'd rather not know of

**Alternate Name:** The Other World where things go Wrong.  
**Pairings:** Undecided  
**Warning label:** Shoujo, attempted humor, craziness, drama, predictability to an extent  
**Full Summary:** In an effort to correct reported errors, Mikihisa announced his decision to transfer Hao and Yoh to the Funbari Academy where he thinks they will improve due to the stricter regime.But within the month, Hao has formed a new group, just for the elite students.Where the richest, most beautiful and smartest get together. But when a new member is accepted into the Society of the Elite, things turn upside-down and Hao isn't sure when he'll see the last of it.

**Author's notes:** Thank you for reading, and I hope you'll review plenty. I like reviews a whole lot and if you review, I'll _always_ try to reply.(Note the try.) There's a spelling/gramatical error? Know anyway to make me improve? Tell me about it!

Oh, and by the way, I do know that Japanese names are written with the surnames first, but to make life easy for all of us, I put their _surnames last_ in the american style.So, in the case of, say, Shiroe Nakajime, Shiroe is the Given Name, and Nakajim, the surname or Last name.

Okay?

* * *

"Hao, I have had enough of all the reports of you, _ahem_, teasing the girls within your school.Yoh, your grades are slipping.Both of you are doing equally badly within this school." 

"And?" Hao interrupted immediately.

Mikihisa frowned threateningly although, his expression remained unseen due to his mask, and was so ignored.Besides that, he knew his son would not be that easily put down.However, just because they had revived him for the sake of giving their Yoh an easy conscience did not mean he could go overboard.Though there was no way to reverse the spell and un-summon him, so the man with a bird mask simply continued as though his eldest son had not spoken.

"Therefore I have decided to switch your schools to the Funbari Academy.Closer to home, and is suited only for the elite students, I should think this will solve the problems you two have had, personality-wise and study-wise."

With that quelling glance that blocked out all attempted protests, what else could they do other than simply stare and say incredulously, "...Hai, otousan"

* * *

** Berne, Switzerland:**

"Shiroe-san, your parents called for you."

"..H-huh? ah, hai"

A black hair brush, with strands of sun-bleached brown hair caught within the bristles, clattered onto the white vanity table as its user got up and hurried away.

**.x.**

She was standing before them fifteen minutes - although she did arrive within five minutes, her parents had been finishing off something they were writing - and as usual, Takashi-sama aka Mister Nakajime at the desk writing his heart out and Seiko Miyauchin or, Mrs Nakajime behind him, hands on his red cushioned chair back.

And Shiroe, also known as 'Miss' Nakajime, before them, on the tan carpet where she was not usually found to be since she was not often called up by her parents.Standing stiffly and silently, like a statue as she fretted silently about the impromptu summon.

Finally, a click of the pen being set down, Takashi looked up to survey his daughter with dispassionate eyes, no pride, no interest or any sort of feeling really.How cold.

"We..." began Seiko, "Have decided to send you to school... overseas."

"E-eah?" Shiroe stared, not completely sure she heard correctly. As far as she knew, she was doing completely fine with her studies, not an amazing student, but moderate and averagely good.Never failed, never gotten bad remarks...She was the kind of 'she-could-do-better' student that was oh-_so_-common.

"Why?" she asked, abruptly, rudely.

Seiko smiled patiently, as though pleased Shiroe had asked.

"We have decided that a change of environment would help you with your...social problem.Therefore, we have sent you to a school where you can restart and make new friends all over again."

For lack of any sort of repose that would work, Shiroe stared.

Were they _KIDDING_ her?!

"Therefore, we will be sending you to an elite high school within the Japanese Funbari district.I am perfectly sure you would love to see your hometown once again...What else...Oh yes, you, Shiroe, will start school the very next day after next.Dormitory has been chosen and you've been sent to the school with your fellow cousin.Your uniforms are with him and he'll escort you.

Be polite dear.Go pack."

Jaw dropping, she spun around with an incredulous expression, and was about to leave when,

"Oh and I forgot..Shiroe!"

**.x.**

After another five minutes of discussion with her parents, Shiroe went back in her room, shutting the door after entering, and slumped against the wall next to it.

No way...she just wanted her to socialise more with a different personality...

But that was a lame excuse to make her study somewhere else.

Even to her.


	2. Explain or die trying

"What the hell-What kind of uniform _IS_ this? And why do I have to wear trousers! Proper girl's uniforms should not include trousers! This is stupid, is creativity dead!?"

"You make a _whole_ lot of noise just changing, Shiroe, though I suppose twerps like you do that, no? But still, hurry up and surrender the bathroom," From somewhere outside, Shiroe's elder brother, Eiji bellowed through the door, "Last time it was you moaning about how you want your shoulder-length hair back...Hurry up! I want my bath!"

"...Argh! Shutup!"

**.x.**

The whole air trip was uneventful.It was boring, and she slept through majority of it anyway so she probably missed everything if something interesting did happen.Still, Shiroe plucked at her new uniform and scowled, trying her best not to sulk.

Shirt and trousers were both a clean pure white, like her old school skirt, with gold-yellow edges and a gold strip of cloth down the front where it was buttoned.Rather chinese-looking to Shiroe.

It also had a bright blood-red tie, but she absolutely, blatently refused to knot it around her neck.

"That tie is _highly odd_... I've never seen a tie _this_ narrow..." was her initial response when she saw it, right on top of her satchlet which she did not check in, she had pulled it out, examined every inch of it, then folded it back into the satchlet, zipping its compartment tight.

Out of sight, out of mind.

**.x.**

"Ooooiii! Shiiiiroooooeeeeee!"

After glancing up - only to notice her cousin waving frantically at her from half a mile away - her only response was simply, _criminally _rude:

"..."  
In other words, she had nothing to say in return.

**.x.**

"Never though your parents would allow you to come so far to Japan!" Saburou Onanya grinned, as he helped her with her luggage,"You must have had a hard time persuading them huh?" SLAM! went the top of the car storage area and another click-Thud! was heard as both of them boarded the taxi.

Shiroe scowled at him,"They were the ones who insisted I come..." she said as she boarded the taxi, her cousin boarded from the other side,"...Dear heavens, does the school lack sense or sensibility? Why are our uniforms the same?!"

"I was just about to ask, why are _you_ wearing the uniform of the Funbari Academy... I thought you'de be studying at the Japanese International Institution down the road?"

"...Well, no, and...Idiot I just asked that!"

"Well, that's a stupid question, how was I supposed to know why you're wearing our uniform? You can't be studying with us since we're like, a boys-only school... Unless... Did you say you convinced your parents to let you study here?"

A terrible realisation hit her, and Shiroe, who had been staring quite absently at the window a moment ago was suddenly, terribly alert, with the knowledge of an awful truth."You-did you just say th-that-"

He stared back, then burst out into hysterical laughter at the horror in her eyes,"Oh Hell! This is gonna be fun!"

**.x.**

Tap.Tap.Tap.

"Damnit."

Tap.Tap.Tap.Tap.

"Curseit."

"Do you have to curse the telephone for every like three numbers you punch in?"

"...Shutup."

* * *

** Halfway across the world(or not quite):**

The telephone was ringing, and Seiko, who never picks up the phone - they have the secretary for that - reached for it.But the efficient lady at the counter beat her to it.With a 'cluck' of the phone being picked up from its tan-coloured cradle, and a series of conversation between the caller and recepient, the secretary turned to the glass-walled office behind her, and pointed at the phone.The secretary's employer responded, and the lady at the counter set the phone down back on its cradle.

And hit the "Call Transfer" button seconds later.

* * *

**Back in Japan: **

"Hello? Mother?"

"Shiroe! How nice of you to call! How are you? How's the weather? How's the-"

"Look mother, there _has_ to be a mistake, you sent me to a bo-"

"Having fun at school are we? That's great! Now then, I hope you like the new surroundings! Not too cold there right-oh dear-The new shipment for the autumn collection has just come in..Yes, Yes, one minute...Dear, you have the _worst_ timings-"

"But moth-"

"Look, I'm really busy now, call me tomorrow okay? Okay.Bye!"

"MOTH-"

Beeeeeeep.

"Urrrrgh!"

**.x.**

Lounging on the couch in the student's lounge, Saburou grinned over his cup of English tea at his cousin by the phone table.Angry, annoyed and very confused, Shiroe threw herself onto the empty space next to Saburou, burying her face into the leather.Then, as that failed to comfort her, she grabbed the nearest cushion, and screamed into it.

"..." Saburou only watched, incase you're wondering.

"GAH!" Shiroe said, as she finally came up for air,"This life sucks."

"You'de better act a bit more masculine than that.Guys do not scream in pillows," 14-year-old Saburou tugged the pillow from Shiroe - and whacked her head with it - "and, it's going to be really really hard to talk to you in school.What do you suggest?"

"Secret language.I speak the deutsche sprache moderately well and a wee bit of the langue francaise."

"Very nice, let's stick to french."

"But I'm no good at langue francaise! Deutsches anstatt sprechen!" she protested,

And tumbled head over heels from the couch.

**.x. **

Now, your authoress here has a very quaint thinking, "For everything there's a reason" to quote her(self). And so, Shiroe fell due to something.And that something/s were:

a) she had been kneeling on the couch, and her cotton trousers were pretty much frictionless against good-quality leather, so she slipped (understandably).

_and_

b) She was startled by the door slamming open.

"Owowow," Shiroe from her fall, was left sprawled on the floor belly down, as she experimentally opened her eyes.

Only to see six pairs of brown shoes.

All of which belonged to males.  
All of who would or _should_ be rather tall.

"Shiroe, what have you done?" was the only sentence to be heard as Shiroe slowly sat back up**  
**

* * *

Aha! Cliff-hanger (or something similar)! 

Sorry for the late update people out there, I had a lot going on in my life.Throat infection, Mid-year exmaniations, Troupe performance practices... Well, now that the June break is here, more frequent updates, and hopefully longer chapters. -nervous laugh- If you haven't guessed it yet:

'deutsche sprache' German language

'langue francaise' French language

'Deutsches anstatt sprechen' Speak german instead

Comment please!


	3. The Society revealed

"Me?! Saburou-san, I did nothing! wr-" she clambered up hastily, as she spoke, finally standing up straight,"-rong.Oh, um..." Just as she finished complaining, she caught sight, of them.The people responsible of the second reason why she fell in the first place. 

Or so she thought.

Standing in front of her, were six males, each of them taller than her - she wasn't very tall in the first place,anyway - and all of them very very fan-girl swoonable.They were arranged in some sort of formation, two standing shoulder to shoulder in front, another two next to the pair in front and the last two sulking behind them in the shadows.

Now, all these observations take time to write, but for Shiroe, no time seems to have passed at all, as she awkwardly stood there, frozen to the spot with worry.

**.x.**

"The Society... Crap! Shiroe, what's the time?"

"W-wha-?! Oh! Erm... uh...-"

"By my judge it should be 12 noon, Onanya," said one of them, a brunette with one of the longest, best-kept hair Shiroe had ever seen,"and you-" Shiroe stiffened as the gaze of the pair of beautiful brown eyes turned to her,"must be Nakajime Shiroe I assume?"

Not knowing what else to say, Shiroe nodded,"Hajimemashite, douzo yoroshiku," she said, a little hopefully as she gave him a shallow bow of respect,"Umm...You people are...?" she asked, inching backwards a step.

"They are the _Society_, Shiroe, don't you know?" Saburou stated plainly in German (the authouress being the lazy moron she is, failed to translate this),"They are the elites among elites, gathered among to form a club, named Society of the Elites.The richest, the smartest, and the best pedigreed.Not to mention the most beautiful...Oh_ gawd_, Shiroe you are really a-"

"Alright! Alright! I'm a moron okay?" she snapped back, quite forgetting to reply in german in her fluster, and so her words came out in plain english.Not surprisingly, the Society was pretty much amused.

"First time I've heard someone say that," muttered someone from the Society, someone with interestingly indigo hair shaped like a prism.Shiroe turned to look at him, then gave his hair a long, hard stare._Gel perhaps?_ she thought, as she gave the interesting hairstyle a curious stare, _Or cement? Or wax? Eiji once told me about-Great, I'm spacing out..._

**.x.**

"So, Um," the confused girl - the only girl actually - said, attempting to start a friendly conversation,"May I know your names?" Almost childishly, she raised one hand, trying to initiate a hand-shake, though what she did not expect was the response.

For a minute, nobody moved, and Shiroe was left standing there like some kind of an idiot, finally, one of them moved, the one at the front to the left. "Yoh Asakura," said one of them, and he took the proffered hand and shook it energetically with a silly grin. This time, Shiroe regconised the face, but the differences in their expressions and hair styles made her glance back and forth, a little confused.

Shounen, Bi-shounen, Shounen, Bi-shounen, Shounen...

_Twins...!_ the realisation smacked her in the head, and she hastily assumed a smile as she realised she had been spacing out for nearly 5 minutes,"Pleased to meet you Yoh-sa-" "

-Dude, you sure are girly!" and the brunette with orange headphones as knocked out of the way with an exclaimation.

The mellowness of the brunette was abrubtly replaced by a vibrant blue of another boy, not knowing what to say at the sudden change of face, Shiroe said the first thing that came to her mind-

"Blue asparagus."

**.x.**

That cracked them up.Every last one of them, Shiroe half-flushed as even the serious guy, the one who spoke to her first, smiled._Nice smile,_ she thought blandly, then glanced away, embarrassed, and muttered an apolegy with her now pink face.

"No problem.I'm HoroHoro Usui... Shiroe was it? Ah yes, that's Tao Ren. He's Hao Asakura and that's his younger twin, Yoh if you haven't caught on.These two at the back are the guards of the twins, but yeah, Hiroshi and Yuuki," Offered he, the guy with blue hair aka HoroHoro.The victim of Shiroe's characteristic cluelessness and bluntness.In other words, he was the guy Shiroe had '_accidently_' insulted by labelling him a blue asparagus.

"Thanks.I'm Shiroe Nakajime, and uhm... I come from Switzerland,I hope you all would be kind enough to teach me the ways in Japan..." she grinned,"You can begin by telling me about the society... Later... Saburou, where am I supposed to live?"

There was a pause as her cousin took out a black notebook and riffled through it,"Um... uh...subjects; Classes; Teachers; Lockers...Ah! Shiroe Nakajime, assigned to Building B, Junior High Dormitory. Level 3, Room number L1-305... Sharing room with-"

"I've to _share_ the dormitt-?!" "Me." "Huh?!"

Everybody had their attention focused now, on the one person who had interrupted Shiroe through mid-complaint.

"He was assigned to share my dormitory," Hao Asakura said smoothly, as he tucked both hands into his pockets,"That was why I came to look for you, my prospective room-mate."

Shiroe, once again, went to the couch, and as she picked up the pillow this time to bang her head with, Saburou beat her to it,"Du bist ein Junge, dich _ERINNERST_?" (Not so much of a lazy moron eh?) Shiroe shook her head, and said the one thing she could think of.

"Pass the pillow," and then, _WHAM! WHACK_-"That'll teach you to abuse your rights as older cousin-"-_WHAM!_

"ow."

**.x.**

And all the Society did was watch, neutrally.For a few moments, there was no sound, except for the insults, cries and complaints Shiroe and her cousin said while the girl abused her cousin by means of only a cushion, until finally HoroHoro grinned in his cheerful striahgt-forward manner, "You know, he's actually pretty cute for a guy."

"He looks more like a girl to me," sniffed Ren, arms crossed over the white and gold uniform,"For all we know, he could just be gay as well."

That was when a bright blue cushion soared half-way across the room and collided with the side of his face.Caught unawares, Ren gave a muffled "mmfph!" of surprise before he angrily ripped the pillow from his face, and threw it aggresively back at Shiroe who caught it just before it hit her face, though it nearly did, the stiches actually grazed her face, painlessly.

"I'm not _GAY_!" she yelled at him, sounding like - what else? - a girl.

"(technically, you _are_ a gay.But you're a girl and all..-)-_ARGH_! MMPFH! MURDE-" Saburou cried as Shiroe crammed two blue cushions into his face, suffocating him.

"Oh, shaddup! If I'm gay, you're gayer than _Paris_. In Spring!"

* * *

In case if you've haven't noticed, the word "shut up" and all its variations are the favourite phrases quoted from Shiroe.Yes, that is her favourite phrase, unsurprisingly since she doesn't have many people who actually agree with her way of thinking.

And the statement 'gayer than Paris in spring' refers to the state/capital?/whatever in France, not a person.What Shiroe said was actually to make a contrast, like: "If I'm gay, so are you!" I have nothing against homosexuality however. So spare me.

Finally, 'Du bist ein Junge, dich _ERINNERST_?' means basically, 'you are a boy, remember?' And no, I don't speak german, I use a translator to do the translation. Just that I find german pretty interesting since my friend keeps complaining about the 'stupid' grammar.

Comments, Reviews, anyone?


	4. Up, or down?

* * *

**  
**

** Act 2;** Getting Used to

* * *

Shiroe paused, suddenly, as she threw down the blue cushion - which hit Saburou on his head, making him upset his cup of english tea which he had so carefuly set on the table just a few moments ago -"S-share a dormitory? Does that mean I've to sleep with you?" 

A pause, the long-haired bi-shounen looked thoughtful,"Kind of."

Saburou, who had been mourning over his upset cup of spilt high-quality tea, tea-soaked hand _and_ tea-stained sleeve hem, suddenly grinned evilly into the bright blue cushion, coughed once and spoke,"Shiroe, both of you are supposed to share a _bed_."

"..._WHAT_?!" she spluttered, and did all she could to not turn red,"That's_ not_ possible," she said, a minute later, reaching to tuck a lock of hair behind an ear, but then, when her fingers met air, she changed her action to flick back her fringe instead.

_Short hair...Is no fun..._ she thought in a sad tone, remembering her previous hairstyle, with the long thick locks of sun-bleached hair, and if HoroHoro had not given her a strange expression with one raised eyebrow, she probably would have pouted like she normally would have. _Being a boy is no fun either..._ she added to herself, cursing the mistake her parents had made...

Was it even a mistake anyway?

Was it possible to not know that one's nephew was studying in an elite all-boys school for... like... _2 whole full years_?

"Anou, " Yoh spoke up, also making Shiroe - once again - realise that she was zoning out,"How about we bring you there instead, then you judge it yourself."

"Great idea," Shiroe said, turning her head at at the person hiding his face with one of the couch's many plush cushions,"Better than relying on my sincerely unreliable cousin's words," She glared at him with her common black eyes and blew out an angry breath, before she bounced up from the couch,"Let's go!"

**.x.**

"All the dormitories in this school are for two people, so everyone who doesn't go home shares a room. They do have an internet connection, though if you overuse or hog up the bandwidth, you're expected to pay extra," HoroHoro said, in his very energetic and rather hyperactive manner which Shiroe found rather amusing, "The Dorm Canteen is situated right in the middle, surrounded by the three buildings and the gate... It's enveloped in the school compound, so no worries about getting lost.Questions ya bubble-head?"

"Bubble-head has no questions, I have," she muttered,"I'll hex you if you call me that one more time, but anyway, like I was going to ask... _Argh_! I can't remember! Crapcrapcrapcrap... !!" and everyone sweat-dropped as Shiroe smacked her head, over and over and over again, all the time trying to remember what she meant to ask. Saburou did the best thing he could have done: he went over, and pulled out a small plastic mallet.

_Thock! _"OW!" "Stop spazzing you sissy." "I'm not a sissy!"

"Shutup, bubble-head.And I'm supposed to go inform the teachers, so excuse me while I go off... " Saburou turned and made to leave, then suddnely turned,"Oh and Shiroe, your mother requests that I remind you to be a good... boy and not to whine like you do at home... I never knew my good cousin was a whiner, or a sissy." he laughed and set off, as Shiroe seethed.

"I'm not a sissy! I AM a--" and she stopped suddenly.

**.x.**

"--a... well."

"You're a what?" Ren asked mildly, Shiroe gave him a sweet smile, then glared at him.He glared back, and both of them did the first thing they thought of: a staring match.

"You sure this is _safe_ Yoh-dono, the last time Ren-sama and Horo-sama had a staring match they ended up throwing punches..." "Ahh.. Amidamaru, don't worry, Shiroe seems a decent person, she wouldn't-"

"-HAH! You blinked! I win!"

"I did not!"

Shiroe laughed, her voice - she having been taught to speak femininely and not yell much - sounding like a tinkling wind-chime, though not as sweet or shrill,"You did, who's the _loser_ now? Loser, loser, _Ren is a loser_!" she cried, spinning around in joyful circles, only to duck suddenly as Ren attempted to attack her, pulling out his weapon as suddenly as she had ducked.

"Ren's a sore loser! Oh-oh!" She laughed, as she ducked another weakly-aimed swing.Disorientated by his embarrassment, Ren was not even seriously trying to fight, though he was trying to injure Shiroe, give her something to feel sorry about.Shiroe however, thought it a game, and ran past Yoh, only to stop suddenly, just in front of Amidamaru, bright eyes serious all of a sudden,"Yoh, who is this?"

**.x.**

"..." Ren froze, weapon coming inches to Shiroe's head - she ducked, only to find it stop, then he pulled it back, "He can see Amidamaru?!"

Shiroe blinked,"I'm not supposed to?"

"Not really," Yoh said, as he grinned cheerily, one hand resting on the back of his head,"This is Amidamaru, and I'll be guessing that you're a shaman, no?"

"Sha..man? I wish, but no, I can't channel a spirit even if my life depended on it, just that... since young, I've been seeing Them... But yeah, I can't do much, mostly I sit around an listen to them talk... I'm weird eh?" she asked, a little self-consciously, cheeks pink.

Hao's facial features gave a little twitch, "You mean you have no spirit guardian?"

"Spirit guardian? You mean like a daemon or a witch's familiar? Nope. Mother likes sending her spirites after me to keep a watch out for her dau-son at times." _Watch what you say Shiroe, your recklessness needs alteration..._

"Yo, people, what are we doing standing here? I thought we'd be checking out the dormitory Shiroe and Hao will be sleeping in together?"

Although there was no hidden meaning of any sort behind HoroHoro's statement - how could there be? - Shiroe turned pink, sharing room with a boy.She had not bunked with her younger brother since she was 5, not even in the same room with her parents...

How was she _ever_ going to tolerate having to share a room?

**.x.**

"Double decker! Double decker! I love double deckers!" Shiroe exclaimed, as she immediately leapt at the aluminium built-in ladder, and dissappeared into the top bunk,"I'm sleeping upstairs!"

"No! I'm the one who sleeps upstairs!" Hao yelled, angry at his bed space being invaded, and made to climb up and throw her down.

"No! You're the _tall guy_ you sleep downstairs or you'll bang your head against the ceiling--EEEEWWWWWWWW!!! YUCK!" and down came tumbling a couple of shirts that probably haven't been washed for a couple of days, onto Hao, who stopped climbing immediately, jumped down to the floor and caught them.

"Thank god you don't have underwear here. Or gym socks." Shiroe exclaimed, as she dumped down a blanket as well, but she aimed it at Hao first, who had caught them all.

"Seems like the regular room of a fouteen year old adolscent I guess, with the smell of swarming germs and humidity-" Shiroe sat up and turned, climbing down the ladder once more,"-At least the bathroom is clean!" she added as she stuck her head into the room and came back out,"and my luggage has arrived." she added happily as the rest stared at her.She sat down on the bottom bunk with a grin.

"Get out, all of you.I want my bath."

This could take some getting used to...

* * *

**Author's Notes, Riviea;** And in this chapter we saw Shiroe do more insane things. 

And yes, I have the story out, yet I've not done a single page on who I want Shiroe to go with -shot-

I should think either -censored- or -censored- h'mm? Cause my friend and I likes these pairings.This story is dedicated to my two friends out there, Tsukiria and Theodora(whose screen-name I do not know -sigh-) You people rock!

Please review! I can't stress this enough.I hope you all can help keep this fic popular, and give me some encouragement, please?


	5. School, in a nutshell

"So bright... What is the time?" 

"6.45am I believe."

"6...45...mnnnn-_WHAT_?!" Shiroe who had just been snuggling into her thick cotton blanket shot right out of it, nearly falling over the edge of her bed rail,"GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Zipping out of her bed so fast it seemed like she left a shape of her behind, she dashed past Hao who, due to his straight and unmoved face, seem to have felt nothing although his hair swayed a little from the backlash of air. There was the sound of the shower being turned on, and a shriek from someone who found the water scalding her skin a bright blush-worthy red, and the very same person rushed out in full uniform.

She grabbed her packed file, and ran after her room mate who had just exited the dormitory room, no sooner had she dived out of the door, did she slam straight into someone.

"O-ooowww... itaaaiii--! ...Eh-?" she looked up, her unevenly-cut bronze hair giving a small shuddery swish of movement as Shiroe glanced up,"Ren?"

"...Hn," The thirteen year old gave her a condensing look of bored irritation. Shiroe glared into those golden eyes, and huffed, deciding that he was not worth an apolegy. Standing up straight, she retrieved her file, and stomped past him childishly.He watched her go off with a bored expression, and went after them, Hao and Shiroe.

**.x.**

"Who is he?"

"Beats me, but he must be really clever and well-pedigreed to be in the A-class straight after transfer."

"Yeah..you know, I heard that he was sent to bunk with a _B-class_ student!"

"Must be a misfile, you know our student boarding department—"

Mutterings and whispers like these were prevailent throughout class 2A-1, where Saburou, Ren and Horohoro were, seated somewhere at the back.Shiroe though, was sadly at the front of the class, shifting nervously from foot to foot with her left arm nervously clutching the right which in turn held the handle of her black and red book file with near-white knuckles.

Her form teacher was scrawling her name in big kanji on the class blackboard,中島白井(1)."Class, this is Shiroe Nakajime. He will be joining our class starting today." Polite applause, Shiroe bowed quickly, her long curtain of hair falling forward to hide her slightly reddened face.

"Good Morning..." she began, a little nervously, then her words came in a flood, spilling out of her mouth."My name is Shiroe Nakajime... well... I come from Switzerland, Berne... But I'm a Japanese still, although I'm really born in Berne. I enjoy track and field, and, especially marathons, cross-country and endurance runs. I'm rubbish at soccer though, and most other sports," she thought about it for once, her warm brown eyes, so common among the Asians, were a little far-away.

"I... like Chemistry, hate German and Literature. I also don't really quite like Geography or History cause of all the memory work. I prefer interesting results and a lot of details throughout the procedure.I enjoy copying things down in notebooks and mind-mapping! I always have friends asking for my notes although they're like so vague and it would be easier to read the textbook... Douzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu!" she bowed hastily, ending abrubtly.

From the back, Saburou applauded, then was soon joined by the rest of the students as the teacher came up and stood next to Shiroe. She, being only about 156cm, was rather stunted in comparison to the lady teacher, who stood gracefully at what seemed like 163cm. For once, Shiroe moaned about how short she was now, in comparison to the towering boys, all who seemed at least 5"4.

"Nakajima-san here will be joining our class from today, until the end of March. Nakajima-san, I am Kazuko Kochiyama. I will be your form teacher, as well as your alchemy(2) teacher. Now, how about... you sit behind your cousin, next to Tao-san and in front of Usui-san. And Nakajima-san, about your dormitory, there will be certain shifting about, so be prepared."

"Hai!"

"Take a seat and we can begin."

** .x.**

"That was amazing! Did you see what the teacher did?! The whole compound totally combusted when the teacher diluted it with sodium hydroxide!" Shiroe cheered, throwing both arms in the air, with her 'Secondary 1 Chemistry, revised edition; clutched safely in both long-fingered hands. Hands that were once trained over a piano or similar.

"...If you keep using those difficult words, I'll never speak to you again," Saburou warned, as he trekked next to her back to class from the 3rd Science Lab.

"I second that," muttered HoroHoro, who looked rather dejected somehow.

As usual, Ren had no comment. And no thanks either although they all had to lag back to wait for 'His Highness', as Shiroe sarcastically labelled him."You are really slow you Highness, need I pull out the red carpet and escort you with a curtsy before you move?" she had said, and all Ren did was glare at her.

"What is the lesson now?"

"Additional Mathematics," Ren said bluntly as Shiroe took a seat next to his table.

"Wheeee! Maths, joy!" Shiroe plunked down in her seat so viciously, the chair rocked back once and very nearly slipped. The cross-dressed girl however, had no apparent fear of a concussion, and continued tilting her chair, rocking it slightly. Arms spread on her table, she balanced her chin on the table with her back arched so that she could reach the plastic and metal structure."I don't even know your syllabus, geez."

"You'll survive, you are an A-classer after all!" Horohoro said, from behind her.

"A-Class, B-class... I don't understand all this junk."

"It's kinda like your old school's teams, Faraday, Fleming, Fibonacci and Nobel right? Yeah, well, you all are sorted by random. We are sorted by firstly, intelligence aka grades, and family social status, finally, behaviour and attitude."

"That's... mean. So Hao-san is in B-class due to?"

"What else? Attitude, he has a record of behavioural matters and narrowly missed being cast in with the C-classers. It's also a rule that the Classes don't share dormitory, go on field trips or study together in the same class. The field trips are set in different days but same places for the levels. Just like the recess time." Saburou paused, lazily lounging in his chair, not even turning to face Shiroe while he talked. He knew she was listening, "We A-classers get special treatment, we get a faster paced learning, we get earlier recess and lunch... hmm, and the lockers. Dormitories are a standard though. Pity pity, but shut up-" Saburou added quickly as he saw Shiroe open her mouth to shoot him down,"the teacher's coming in."

"You still haven't told me what we're studying!"

**.x.**

Finally, after hours and hours, teacher after teacher, lesson after lesson, the day ended with a refreshing trill of the bell. A rising hum rose through the room, as the students packed up and got ready to leave. Shiroe yawned, widely, as she hauled her file out from under her table.

She was just about to leave when,"Shiroe--"

Horohoro stopped her.

"What?"

"As chairman of the school's sports CCA council, I need you to attend an audition. For every item of sport until we find a suitable one. Is it okay if I set it as tomorrow?"

"Umm... okay," she said, surprise and worry crossing her features all at once as she took hold of her file, and raced after Saburou as he left.She had yet to catch up with her cousin when, once again-

"Nakajime-san!"

"Ah! Kochiyama-sensei!"

"Nakajime-san, your parents have been informed of your dormitory misfile, and they have chosen the room L1-315, the one on the fourth floor. Next door to Onanya-san, your room-mate has been informed about it. Now, you should be moving in by now, so hurry!"

"Hai, Kochiyama-sensei!" and the foreign student raced off in a flurry of bronze, black and white/yellow colours, up the stairs two by two.

"I don't think her parents are aware of the occupant's crankiness..."

**.x. **

"Why you?!"

"You think I like bunking with an air-head like you?" he said, a little sulkily.

"I'm not an air head," she said crossly as she hung up her clothes in her assigned wardrobe,"and I never said I thought you like bunking with me."

"Shut up bubble-head."

"You too,

_Your Highness_."

* * *

(1) 中島白井 means 'middle', 'island', 'white' and 'well' individually. I was surprised this name was so close to Shiroe's even though this name was whole invented. Correctly written, it should have been Nakajima(中島) Shiroi(白井) respectively. And so, Shiroe will have her surname edited to Nakajima.

(2) Alchemy is a form of olden science which includes spiritual, supernatural etc with science. Kochiyama-sensei is simply their Chemistry teacher, with a serious sense of humor.

**Trivia!** Did you know...

Saburou's name is written as 女屋三郎, 'female', 'house', 'three' and 'son'. Saburo actually has the meaning of third son. It is originally read as Onaya(女屋) Saburo(三郎). I was surprised myself as to how similar my inventions were to the originals and that they actually existed.


	6. The Audition of certain doom

"No..." her skin was shiny with a thin film of sweat, her sheets knotted and tangled, like she had been trashing in her sleep.

"Shiroe... " came the concerned voice.

"D-don't touch me! I don't want your help!" with a shuddered cry, she shot up, with her brown eyes wide open with shock and fear, her breathing labored as she stared wildly at the wall at the end of her bed.

"Shiroe, _look_ at me. What is wrong?" concerned gold eyes examined the shaken teen.

She raked her fringe back with her fingers, her nails scoring her scalp with invisible lines.

"... Nothing. Bad dream, I knew I was an idiot to read that e-mail Xenia sent. Nystrophobia.." she muttered, as she wiped her foreead with the sleeve of her loose shirt."I'm going back to sleep," and true to her word, she flopped back down, eyes closing as she gathered her blankets to her chin, curling up snugly, back to her room mate.

Ren however, said nothing and did not try to even attempt a look of annoyance at being ignored. Silently, he climbed down the ladder, to his bed space below her's, and too laid on his bed with a muffled sigh of bed-springs.

Wonder what he was dreaming, he thought, he sure looked agitated...

"Well he's weird since the beginning," he said aloud, as a soft sigh from the mattress above his as its occupant slowly fell into another uneasy sleep.

"Indeed, master." came the sleepy reply from his loyal spirit, Bason, as the purple-haired teenager too succumbed to sleep with the excitement over.

**.x. **

"You don't look like you slept well," observed Saburou, as he ruffled his cousin's bronze hair.

Shiroe had her head on the table, face-down, buried in her crossed arms. She winced when she heard Saburou speak, muttering her reply in a tired voice,"I d'int.Leave me 'lone."

"What happened?"

"Night mare. Let me sleep... " a soft complain issued, and the speaker fell asleep. Saburou raked his fingers through his own hair and shrugged.

"Tough luck."

**.x.**

By the time lesson ended, she had been caught sleeping twice by her teachers. First by her Literature teacher; Tsukitsukuri-sensei who went on and on about how rude it was to sleep in class even though she knew she was clever and could read it up. She also said, that she would not punish her this time, but next time it would be different. Shiroe only looked hazily at her textbook - Sing to the Dawn - as the she spoke.

Why is her surname so damned long...? was her last top before she toppled face first into her book and nodded off.

Then, her History teacher; Shikegika-sensei, who had frowned at her, and - had Saburou not dissuaded the teacher by saying it was jet-lag setting in - she would have gotten detention."Pay attention, Nakajima," he had ordered, and whacked the top of her head with the wooden cane he brought around everyday - the symbol of the Level-master of A-class Freshmen. Shiroe shot upright, and somehow kept awake and, seemingly, clear-minded until the bell sang to announce the end of the day.

Grabbing her file and throwing all of her stationery, worksheets and note-books into it, she fastened it quickly and was about to leave when Horohoro grabbed her arm, and flicked her forehead.

"Ow!"

"Where do you think you're going? You've an audition today."

"Immediately after-school?!"

"Yup! Now, you can choose to not take some of the items you will be tested in. Like swimming or gymnastics, but you must take the basic sports: track, basketball, netball. Once you have been found extremely suitable for one item, you will be exempted from taking the rest of them. Unless you disagree and want to go on to the next item."

"Right, and my first item?"

"Netball."

"Can I go for track first?"

"No."

"Please?"

"Alright, maybe."

**.x.**

She was doing warm-ups at the track within minutes, after she changed to her gym clothes. The coach looked at her with eyes that were clearly un-optimistic; skinny and not tall. Her legs were also far from muscled - they looked kind of like the skinny poles used to support the creepers in their eco-garden.

But there was something about her that hinted endurance - she had dashed all the way down from her classroom at the third story, to her dormitory at the fourth story, changed and down to the track in less than half an hour. She wasn't panting or looking near collapse either, but then again, nearly fifteen minutes had passed...

"Nakajima Shiroe, age 13. Has been trained for cross-country and endurance in previous school. Correct?" The coach was tall, with a cap pulled down to shade his eyes, tanned skin and an overall fit physique.

"Hai!" Shiroe said, standing straight, then reaching down to touch the ground with ease.

"The criteria might be a little high for you since you seem pretty unsuitable for our school's track team that specialises in both speed and endurance. If you can reach that end of the track-" he pointed to the end point about 200 metres away, "-within or above the school's entrance timing, 2 minutes 31 seconds, immediate enrollment."

"Hai!"

"Ready? 3, 2, 1-GO!"

And she was off, racing like her life depended on it. She crossed the line, and the big timer her coach had turned on at 'Go!' stopped timing, having been stopped by the crossing of the light beam at the other end. The coach was stunned.

"Sensei! What is my time?" came the yell at the other end, as the student trekked back with considerable speed.

"... 1 minute 57 seconds! Nakajima! You have beaten our school's set record of 2 minutes 10 seconds by our school's current-no, formerly fastest runner! Immediate enrollment, you may go."

"..."  
With eyes as wide as a fish's, Shiroe turned around, and slowly went back to her dormitory.

**.x.**

Ren was at the desk, the one nearer to the door, writting away furiously in his cramped handwriting at some book report. Shiroe glanced at his face, furrowed with concentration, and plunked onto the lower level of the bunk bed. Ignoring the fact that it belonged to Ren, she flopped back onto it.

"I hate the weather today, so warm..."

"It's summer after all. Anyway, you can go take a shower or something, you smell like you've been running for a thousand miles."

"Ew, not that bad-" she paused and sat up," Okay, maybe a little... but you too! You go bathe first."

"I just did," Shiroe looked at him critically, and observed that he was telling the truth, his hair was wet.

Without a second word, she got up to the wardrobe, pulling it open to get her clean clothing, and then marched into the bathroom with a towel over her arm. Diving into the bathroom with a leap, the door slammed shut and tightly closed.

Ren did not bat an eyelid at the sudden violent sound.

He had taken to continue toweling his hair while he wrote, trying to save time and hurry up and have his hair dry up.

As he finished writing his last sentence of the accursed descriptive essay their teacher had set, he threw the towel from his shoulders and head.

_'Only with power can one achieve what he has._

_They say knowledge is power, study harder and you will achieve that, and much more.' _was what he wrote, and he set down his ball-point, next to the almost un-used correction tape.

He experimentally ran his hand through his hair.

Dry.

He almost smiled. He gave his desk a once-over with his saffron eyes quickly, not locating that hair product he required, he sighed as he stood up; stretching as he went.

Sauntering to the door, he laid his hand on the wrench and ..._  
_

**.x. **

She pulled off her gym shirt, the suffocating, sticky and, now, reeking piece of clothing and laid it over the sink as she surveyed herself in the mirror. The portrait that stared back at her had that same serious look on her face. Short layered bronze hair, the light tan that never grew darker, the light brown-cinnamon shade that she found creepy since young. The high cheek bones that she thought stuck out on her face oddly. Her neck was thin, and her collar-bone was very clearly defined.

Her brother used to remind her about it, she remembered, the good-natured teasing:

_"You know Shiroe, you are lucky to be human, if you were some kind of domestic animal I don't think you'de make a very good plate of these-" he pointed at their plates, which had the barbecued ribs with a black-pepper sauce and potato to the side on it,"-But, I heard that for one thing it's fashionable for the models nowadays to purposely define those bones to make them look like scarecrows." He winked,"Grow taller Shiroe, and you could send them home grieving like the world just died-"_

_"Eiji Nakajima! Eat your food!"_

_"Hai, ottosan!" he said, and grinned at Shiroe in such a way she had to smile. With a cough, she hid her smirk. Her brother though, perhaps because that he was only 9 years old, had no such ability, and snorted into his glass of milk in such a way that their parents looked disapproving..._

She continued staring at the girl in the mirror, who returned the cinnamon-eyed gaze. Smiling in spite of herself at the memory, she reached behind her back, and unbuckled the thick vest that was there to only hide her chest - and probably to suffocate her too. She had been curious to know why her mother had added those in her suitcase, but now she knew. Hastily, she finished undressing and reached over to twist the spigot of the tub. Stepping in gingerly into the cool water, she played around, messing with the soap till there was a thick rich layer of foam on the surface of the water.

Nearly eight minutes later, with her body covered chest-down with thick foam that the water in her tub couldn't wash off as it was also layered similarly, she planted both hands on the side of the tub and-

**.x.**

... wrenched it open,

**.x.**

-and half-knelt up to reach for the shower's spigot, leaning forward in a crouch to get it.

**.x.**

... just in time to catch Shiroe, half out of the tub, hand stretching towards the shower's tap.

Her eyes were wide open as she stared at him, swathed in nothing more than a blanket of foam.

* * *

Now it's time to ditch you guys for a couple of days while I try to write the next chapter Dx 

Reviews please!

-Riviea


	7. Death by sand

"...!!" For lack of words that would ever describe or articulate her sudden want, she only flushed a bright red, and clasped both arms around herself, both hands clinging to her shoulder. Eyes wide with surprised embarrassment, she bit down hard on the inside of her lip to suppress a shriek, and then very coldly,"Get out. Now."

Ren bit back a retort at the order, and retreated with haste. When he slammed the door shut, his face was red, and his heart was thundering. Something about that guy in there made him nervous... made him feel... weird.

He peeled off the door with the blush still on his face as he returned to writing. His heart palpitated and his mind whirled nervously.

What the hell is wrong-

**.x.**

She settled back into the tub, the shower forgotten as she massaged her scalp soothingly and laughed nervously, quietly to herself.

No worries, he saw nothing.

Nothing at all! ...Now, for that shower...

**.x.**

-with me?

There was something about that boy there that irked him, something that just made him too nervous.He felt too weird, and the image of Shiroe in there nearly fully undressed just sent images flying through his mind. He turned even redder and shoved them away. He was a boy, a boy, a_ boy_. Shiroe was a boy, a _guy_. not a-a...a girl. Why then did he just-

-_click_.

He glanced up at the sound of the door opening. Then glanced down almost as quickly as Shiroe came stepping out of the shower in her track clothes; the sleeveless pale blue shirt that was weird and loose, and the shorts, that were _really _short, just to prevent friction and movement restriction. He still had the towel draped over his hair, the pale coloured towel made her bronzed hair seem bold and dark. Although he would rather _die_ than admit it, Shiroe was one serious bishounen. Hao was alluring, a beauty in his way, but this school-boy had more of a... feminine appeal than him. Ren swallowed back a blush, and narrowly risked choking.

"I didn't know we had to do journaling," now he had both hands on the table, and his form was curved over in the left side of his vision range. He had had his head somewhat lower, scrutinizing at the report no doubt. The towel draped on his hair was brushing against Ren's cheek, he shifted away quickly, nervously. "Errgh, I hate homework, nevermind." Shiroe straightened, and threw the towel over her chair, stretched, and turned.

"You coming?"

"Where?"

"Running."

"...No."

**.x.**

The feeling of the wind rushing past through her hair felt good, she sighed as she stopped half-way and breathed in deep as she stretched her thin arms toward the sky. Waving them in a circle, she finally let them drop to her sides. With a sudden halting breath, she turned her attention to the sand pit at the far end. She bent her knees, tensing them before she sprang forward, racing as fast as a deer could bound, she dashed, and then once her foot crossed the wooden line, she launched herself across-

"Shiroe."

"Huh-AGHCK-!" she glanced to the side, and landed face-first and flat on the sand half-way through her jump.

Saburou was grinning at her from her left. "Yo," he said smoothly as his cousin plucked herself from the sand, and dusted it out of her hair, eyes and everywhere else, face scrunching as she spat out a mouthful of the very fine gravel. "Accepted into Track eh?"

"Yeah, urgh, sand tastes..eww," she said, distractedly,"I was trained for cross-country anyway... Pft, now why did you come?"

"Well, I always walk around these parts," Shiroe could not tell if he was lying or not,"and anyway, I would like to tell you that there is a Language Proficiency Test tomorrow for our level. Be sure to study."

"WHAT?! B-but!"

"Goodness, it's ten already! Ja, sayonara!"

"M-matte!! What the hell are you saying about the test? Waait!" wailing, she ran after her cousin, who by some means managed to vanish from view within the next five minutes.

But not before Shiroe spotted that smug smirk-like smile on his face as he turned back half-way.

"DARN YOU!"

**.x.**

"Shiroe."

"Go 'way."

"It's 6.30am you loser. Wake up."

"No wan'na," she turned over, and pulled the pillow tight over her head, squeezing her eyes shut,"I don't want to go for the Test."

"Wake up," Ren snapped, "You're irritating me."

"Go 'way."

"I'll get detention if I can't get you to wake up for school on time!"

"Get d'tention. Sch'l starts at 7.20 anyway... I c'nted, it'll take me 6 min'ates to sprin' 'ere, now go 'way," she mumbled, and pulled her blanket up to her chin drowsily."'night."

Impatient, and having been warned to make sure to keep Shiroe away from being late or risk detention, Ren yanked the blanket off her, along with the window, then threw the windows open. Sunlight streamed in rays, like bright arrows, illuminating the room with light.

"ow"

"Get. Up. Now."

She sat up, one eye half-closed in sleep with her hair tousled and in her eyes as she blinked and descended the stairs in her loose sleeping shirt and shorts, one hand rubbing her eye and the other holding her raised forearm. "Going," she offered drowsily, and she wheeled off to one side unsteadily with a still half-spinning head, and after retrieving her clothes, stumbled to the bathroom, her head nearly colliding into the door as she opened it, she pitched in like a ship on rough water.

The door slammed.

"I'm going!"

"... The water heater!" There was a screech of cold water assailing the occupant,"ARGH!"

Normally, he would have rolled his eyes, maybe say something sarcastic, but this time, he couldn't take it, the irony, the silliness...

He laughed, mirthful laughter escaping from him.

"Shutup! This is not funny!" came the hostile cry, and the student hid his amusement behind a cough, and regained his regular expression.

* * *

Sorry about the time lapse between this and the last chapter. And the quality too come to think of it. I never expected life to hit a rough patch and that I'd have to flounder really long in. Well anyway, I'm back.

-Riviea


	8. I, failed

* * *

**Act 3;** Suspicion

  


* * *

"I've... failed." Shiroe said, muttered, then turned her head away, a slight tinge of embarrassed red creeping across her cheeks.

Ren stared at her, as did Saburou, HoroHoro and Hao.

"Don't look at me like that!" she snapped, irritated as she turned an even brighter red,"I didn't ask for it!"

"Hey! This is serious!" Saburou said, "You will be asked to take a make-up and if you fail that one you're going to get booted into Grade B with Hao!"

From somewhere behind, Hao looked mutinous.

"Don't worry, I'll be absolutely fine," she sighed,"I will not fail!"

"I hope you know where you lost marks in."

"I do," Shiroe said, as a guilty image of her missing page of answers formed in her mind, she winced, and Hao hid an amused smile.

**.x.**

"You'll need a tutor."

"Honestly Saburou, are you deaf or dumb?" she said exasperatedly, as she threw a broken pencil at him,"I'll be f-"

"Ren, please be patient with the klutz..."

"_WHAT?!_"

"Shiroe! Shut, up. Now Ren, if you don't mind, could you please-"

"I'm no klutz-"

"Shiroe, seriously, Ren is the only one who you have any _real_ contact with out side school times. It's for the best!"

"No!" She protested, quite missing the delicate stress Saburou put on the words 'real contact' as if hinting something, _Why him?! Why is it always him?!_

"Just shut up and go with the flow," Saburou said smoothly, as he crossed his arms,"You have no complaints do you, Ren?"

The amber-eyed teenager said nothing, though his violent, cold glare should have been a sufficient warning. But for people like Saburou...

"Then it's settled!"

... Sometimes, we don't know if Saburou is simply acting dumb or really born with an IQ that goes into negative numbers-

"_Nuuuuuu..._!" Shiroe wailed, both hands dramatically clutching at her head.

-But for Shiroe, I think she suspects it's the latter.

**.x.**

"You what?!"

Bored mahogany eyes tilted downwards to meet the saffron pair, and the brunette repeated his suspicion,"I have no doubt that Shiroe may not be what he seems."

_Hao, what are you talking?_ Ren wanted to ask, but the named brunette beat him to it.

"I know exactly what I'm talking, and I'm telling you, what I read in his mind is totally different from any guy's mind I've read. Hell, it is completely utterly interesting..." The smug smile-like expression forming across the scheming face was teasing, testing the other's patience,"Of course, if you asked..."

"Tell me, what is it you are intently hiding from me?"

"Say please."

"... I'm not here to play games with you Hao."

"Tch, sad. Well then, I'll have you figure it out yourself, I believe it's almost lights-out..."

"Hao, you sadistic bas-"

But the long-haired brunette had already gone, sauntering his way through the door and down the corridor. Ren swore as he went back to the desk from the main door as the bathroom door opened. Automatically, Ren looked up, then almost immediately looked back down. "What was the racket about?" Shiroe asked as she flumped onto the nearest bed. Which I should remind you belonged to her room-mate instead of her but the lazy ass could not be bothered with the ladder just yet.

"Nothing much..." Ren said dismissively, lying through his teeth as he determinedly kept his head down.The last thing he needed was to look at Shiroe and note all over again how very very pretty he was for a guy.

"Ahh," Shiroe said, not quite bothering,"Well, I'm going to sleep now. Good night!" There was a short creaking sound as Shiroe flung herself onto the mattress on her bed space, then all was quiet.

"...Klutz," he sighed, unaware of the small smile forming on his mouth just then.

**.x.**

"I'll fail! I'll fail I'll fail I'll fail I'll fail I'll _fail_!"

Ren was not sure if he could put up with this rant anymore.

However, only just a few hours later...

"I've... passed..." He said, mutely with bright wide eyes, and the next thing anybody knew, great crystalline tears were leaking down his face. There was a strange twisting feeling in his heart when the pair of shining golden optics spotted Saburou going up to congratulate him. And a great feeling of electricity ran up his spine when her delighted but teary brown eyes finally met his, and she gave him a smile, her usual joyous ones.

He never noticed how gently he had smiled back.

But Hao did, and it was the only thing he could do to hide the smug look he had on his face.

**.x.**

_What did Hao mean?_ Ren thought to himself as he rolled onto his side, his blanket tangling and twisting together with him, _'I have no doubt Shiroe may not be what he seems'? How ironic could things get? And anyway, why was Hao telling him? If it concerned Shiroe, wouldn't his cousin be the best person to tell?_

"Ren...?"

Was that Shiroe or did he just imagine that?

"..."

Right, he imagined that. He frowned at his runaway imagination, and then went back to his thoughts. Why wouldn't Hao tell Onanya? Maybe because he already knew? Or...

"Ren...?"

He got out of his bed in annoyance and curiosity, standing at his full height, his face could just see past the barrier at Shiroe's calm face. He frowned, imagination-

The sleeping individual shifted, bronze hair falling into the fair face that looked surreal in the dimness,"...Ren?" The voice was so soft he was not sure he heard. But he saw the lips move slightly, and on a whim, he reached out a hand to gently push away the bronze strands in her face. The girl sighed, and then curled up tighter, blanket drawn up to her face, he sighed too and smiled, then stroked the cheek gently._He's got his fair share of excitement today..._

"Sleep well," he murmured, then he went back to his bed. He was just falling asleep, when it occured to him;

_...What have I just done?!_


	9. Oh joy, Sabotaged by Saburou

It seemed like yesterday she had taken her test, though truthfully, it was weeks ago, and time flew by on hastened flight. Shiroe was almost surprised to hear it was already late summer, almost autumn. Though she was even more surprised when her form teacher stepped into class one day to announce some very strange news.

"Field Trip?"

"Hai, sou desu, minna-san!" Kochiyama-sensei smiled as a murmur ran through the class,"this year for you people, we will be going away to stay at an onsen ryokan in the more remote parts of Hokkaido..."

"Ryokan-?" Shiroe blinked, "What's that?"

Saburou looked deeply amused as he turned his head to face her, his bright auburn eyes twinkling,"An onsen ryokan is simply a Japanese-style Inn with hot springs."

Shiroe looked a little startled,"Hot springs? You people go to _hot springs_ for field trips...?! But I suppose it would be fun..."

Saburou nearly laughed,"You have no idea."

**.x.**

"... Ren,"

"Hmn?"

"What is it like in an onsen ryokan? Saburou refuses to tell me a single thing."

The amber-eyed teen paused for a moment,"You'll see when we get there, I shall not spoil the surprise or misplace Onanya's trust in me."

Now, Shiroe looked positively anxious, she had absolutely no doubt Saburou was out to get her.

**.x. **

"Hokkaido... Doesn't Horohoro-san say he's from Hokkaido?"

"Yup," the blue-haired teen grinned as he lounged back on the couch of their meeting place after school during lunch-time. A council meeting was held for them so far, to discuss what was to come. Though really, it was an excuse to have everybody together and chatting. "It'd be great to go back to my hometown again."

"Ahh..." Shiroe said pensively as she took a thoughtful sip of her tea,"Sou desu, sou desu... How is Hokkaido like?"

"Rural... Really cold during winter... It's a pretty place."

"I look forward to the trip."

"You should, and an onsen ryokan! It'd be great fun," he said with a grin,"bathing together like brothers."

Shiroe froze.

"Yes," Saburou had a beautifully evil smile on his face,"And we'll all get to see how well-built our little track-team member is."

"..." Her eyes widened, as she fought to keep her stunned expression off her face, they were supposed to bathe in an onsen,_ together?!_ How awful could this get? Then everything was in place, Saburou was out to get her and she only realized it now.

"Saburou... I can back out of this trip right?"

"No," Saburou looked malicious as the rest of the Society turned to look curiously at Shiroe, wondering her reasons for backing out,"Your parents wrote a slip out to me which I handed to the teacher-in-charge right at the beginning of the term. 'Shiroe is not to be exempted from any trip or excursion unless given written permission from a qualified doctor or guardian', signed and double signed. No escaping."

"I knew it."

**.x.**

She crossed out the dates, and noted how it came so close to her dreaded excursion day. Another week! She wanted to throw a temper right now and there but the sight of Saburou's smug face and satisfied expression for causing trouble for her just made her steam and absolutely refuse to worsen her situation.

_-flump_

"What's the matter now?" Shiroe scowled, her face darkening as she glared at the calendar, she could almost feel her anger vein throbbing. She spun around, and without much warning;

_ -smack_

It took a moment to register, then Shiroe waved her hand through the air frantically. Ren was still passive, as he rubbed his wrist which had been _so_ badly injured by his eccentric room-mate. "You don't have much strength for someone your age," Ren said passingly, while Shiroe froze, still scowling,"_Weakling._" Shiroe scowled deeper, but said nothing, but only to throw her red marker pen on the desk with a clatter and then turn to clamber up the ladder and into her bed space. And isolated herself by throwing a blanket over her head.

However, minutes later, Shiroe clambered down the ladder with her blanket over her shoulder, and she set to tying up a makeshift tent in Ren's bed space instead. When she was done, she set back and sulked, away from prying eyes.

Or so she had hoped.

Determined not to let the sulking individual checkmate his territory, Ren had climbed in as well. She scowled deeply and ignored him as he settled against the wall that the bed was pushed against. "What now, kiddo?"

She gave him a dark look, and gathered her legs up into her arms and buried her face half-way in it, eyes staring ahead.

With absolutely no idea what to do - he never had to comfort a room mate, hell, he never had a roommate until Shiroe came, Ren simply stared ahead as well, in the shaded dimness of the 'tent'.

_ Had Saburou ever told him about 'what-to-do-when-Shiroe-attempts-to-infiltrate-your-territory'?  
Well, Saburou did not say that... he said, "And if your roommate does do a misc. array of other things, its a fairly easy way to get it back. All you have to do is..."_

_"Tickle him."_

Now that would be easy enough, but, again with the awkward matter... Well he was really too irritated to care, he did not like people storming into his bed space to sulk.Tentatively, he poked her arm, Shiroe had no response. And then,

"If you don't get out of my bed I am going to _tickle_ you, Nakajima." He said flatly.

Shiroe ignored him.

And so, living up to his promise, he tickled her, much to her irritation, she yelped and flinched, attempting to fight him off. Too bad she was too ticklish to think straight. Twisting and writhing and squirming and crying with protests in her lame attempts to escape the agonizing tickles from his questing fingers as she lost her balance and tipped backwards. What would she not give to simply wrench them off her waist, and tie them to the bed post as tightly as a stitch. She gasped, breathless from her laughter, and choking, she twisted away, only to tip over the side of the bed and fall.

**.x.**

They impacted the floor together, with a loud "Ow!" from both of them.Blinking away the tears that sprang to her eyes from the pain of the sudden fall, her head swam as she attempted to get up, only to bump her head against his chin and fall back again with a pained cry of "Itai!" Flat out on the floor with her head swimming, she only dimly registered the click of the door opening.

Saburou opened the door part-way, "Shiroe! Your mother's just c...call...ed..."

"..." Shiroe blinked, and tilted her head backwards, arching her back as she did so just enough to catch sight of Saburou.

"..." Saburou stared back from the partly-opened door-way.

"Sorry to interrupt! I-I'll tell her you're busy and to call later!!" and in a frantic slam of the door, her cousin fled from the doorway like a chased rabbit.

She blinked, taking a moment to register, before she got up again, and then when her forehead hit his neck did she finally realise something was seriously wrong.

"I...I...Y-y-you...eh..."

Bright golden eyes stared at the brown auburn ones as the girl choked, tilting her head back to take a look at the face of her room mate who had just sat back up. Shiroe swallowed, her face turning a delicate shade of pink.

There was a stretch of silence as they both stared at each other, then, a choked chuckle escaped. Then laughter.

"Saburou... He..." Shiroe succumbed to another fit of laughter, twisting about in another stomach-aching bout of giggles,"Thinks... Oh damn!"

"It's not funny you twit!"

"Is so! I mean, look at his face! He thinks we're... we're... oh damnit!" she cried as she climbed to her feet and headed for the ladder, pausing only to untie her duvet before dragging it up with her, uncontrolled giggles escaping through her mouth which she kept her duvet pressed against.

"Good night!"

At least he got his bed space back.

* * *


	10. The memorable bus ride

"Urusai! Shizuka ni!, baka no tako atama!"  
(Full translation available at the end of the chapter...)

"Nani!? Ore wa tako atame desu ka?!"

"Hai! Sou desu!"

No, it is _not_ a japanese rally show, as much as Ren wished it was.

"_NANI_?! Anata wa urusai de kuso atama desu!"

It was not a television program with a remote control plus its much welcomed _mute _button...

"Watashi-_KYAH_! Saburou-kun! Anata wa BAKA desu!"

"SHIZUKA NI!"

It was the sound of another typical half hour on board the bus ride to their designated onsen ryokan.

**.x.**

At last the "dreaded" day had come. They had been packed on board an airplane and taken the flight to Hokkaido, they had reached the state, now all they had to do was to reach their designated place of stay. Shiroe was none-too-happy, packed aboard the cramped 38-seater bus with the rest of her class and two teachers with Saburou, Yoh, HoroHoro and Ren all in one.

Ren was finding it particular hard to get a quiet moment with Saburou and Shiroe cranking up the noise level every few minutes to yell at each other and hurl insults.

"Baka!"

"You don't even know what that means you weakling!"

"Do so, you loser!"

"Whatever, you little girl!"

"Little?! I'm not little--and I'm...n-no-not a girl either!" It was difficult to spit out the lie, strangely.

"Are _so_ too, and you are really fla--" At this point, Ren had looked up at both of them with some interest, and therefore Shiroe saw it necessary to shove both hands into her cousin's face to shut him up.

"Keep it down, both of you, someone's trying to sleep here!" Yoh's lazy call came from the seat on the left of the aisle.The cousins, Saburou seated with Horohoro in front of Shiroe and Ren, turned to glare at him, but all he did was yawn and go back to his doze. At that, they both flopped back into their seats huffily, with Shiroe's expression set in a very disgruntled scowl.

"Not a nice weather to scowl you know, it's ruining the nice day," Ren said passively, but Shiroe only glared at him. Ren sighed and settled back to stare at the window.

Teenagers...

**.x.**

"I'm taking this one!" Shiroe said immediately, and she dumped her suitcase and belongings on the space nearest to the wall and next to the table, and sat down there in her socks as she was used to.

Saburou frowned a little, and smacked his head,"Shiroe, you're supposed to leave at least some space for us. How do you expect the three of us," he pointed at Horohoro, Ren, and himself,"to sleep in one tiny space?"

"..." Now this was completely uncalled for. But still... "I haven't cleared my suitcase and stuff off the floor yet! We'll all fit for sure."

**.x.**

"There, see, _told you_ we could fit!" Shiroe said triumphantly,"But I'll move under the table if you prefer that."

"I prefer that," Saburou said with its falsely cherubic smile, "Especially since your mother told me that no harm of any sort to come to you. You will be much safer under the table."

"..." Sometimes, it was so easy for Shiroe to want to just simply lean over and _strangle_ all of his negative number IQ level out of him.

"We're supposed to go down for lunch now, we get to soak in the spring for about two hours after dinner!" Horohoro exclaimed happily,"That's just five hours later! I can't wait!"

_Five hours huh..._ Shiroe brooded about it,_ five hours to make up with a plausible excuse it is._

"Two can play at this game and I'm going to beat you, hands down," Shiroe muttered, her brown eyes glaring at her preoccupied cousin through the corner of her eye.

**.x.**

Served together with a table of teachers and about eight other tables of students that made up all five classes of the A-class within Funbari Academy, the meal was a four course one, with sticky white rice and even sushi. Unfortunately enough, The table Yoh, Saburou, Horohoro, Ren, Shiroe and five other fellow classmates chose to sit at was right next to the teachers'. Our ill-fated protagonist found herself sitting back to back with Tsukitsukuri-sensei, her long-winded literature teacher who like her had a habit of setting down their drinking cups on the tatami-floor next to them rather than on the table.

What a small world...

Amidamaru and Bason were there too, seated at an empty table, chatting... Shiroe blinked when she saw them at the table, but when one of the guys asked her wat she was looking at, she lowered her head and went on eating.

Lunch was quite a satisfying meal though, Shiroe appeared to have had problems trying not to let the sashimi ruin her appetite too much. She simply could not...stop... staring at it... The slimy pieces of rosy-pink uncooked flesh that had been freshly sliced from a now-mutilated salmon... She bit on her chopsticks and forced back a shudder of disgust. Yoh seemed to notice her discomfort, and picked up a piece and held it in front of her,"Try dipping it in the soy sauce if the taste offends you so much," he demonstrated before he ate the piece whole. Obviously he thought it was only the taste that Shiroe found offensive, not the appearance as well.

Shiroe blinked, and hesitantly tried it; only to make a very nasty expression as she forcibly swallowed it and in her haste to get it down, mistook her teacher's cup for her own one which she had chosen to fill with water, and downed it.

Sitting next to her, Ren blinked, and suspiciously picked up the cup she set down, having caught a whiff of something that smelled extremely familiar. He brought it up to his face, and examined it closely. It only took a second before his eyes widened, and--

_thund._

Shiroe toppled backwards in what seemed like a faint.

Horohoro, Yoh and the other five classmates blinked and stared openly while Saburou nonchalantly continued his mediative chewing. Ren coughed, and upturned the cup, showing the drop of strong-smelling clear liquid that dripped out, "I think he might have just drunk up Tsukitsukuri-sensei's cup of sake instead."

**.x.**

"...No."

After a long rest during which the alcohol broke itself into simpler substances via her liver and was properly digested, Shiroe had woken up; shooting straight upright. Saburou was in the shower, Ren was... somewhere, and Horohoro was sitting at the table, opposite the foot of her futon.

"A hot spring soak will get rid of the hangovers you have..." Horohoro said, coaxingly while Shiroe, who was still having a mild headache from alcohol intolerance glared at him and the spirit, Kororo, hovering by him. The tiny sprite-like creature ducked away hastily when she caught sight of Shiroe's dangerous expression.

"No, damnit!" She said, irritated, her vision still hazy and her head still throbbing dangerously,"Leave me alone will you?"

"But! The onsen! You're missing out if you don't go, and its thirty minutes to it!"

"I-I... I'm," Shiroe floundered for a while, then she grabbed for the first word she thought of,"... aquaphobic okay?! I'm scared stiff of water, now leave me alone!"

"You should have told me so earlier!"

"Go 'way!" And with a mumbled "hmph", Shiroe pulled the blanket of her futon over her head and ignored Horohoro for the rest of the time he was there.

**  
**

* * *

A/N: Here's the translation I promised plus a few notes that I got from my Japanese studies. 

Happy reading!

-Riviea

_"Urusai! Shizuka ni!, baka no tako atama!" _-- "Noisy! Keep Quiet, stupid octopus-head!"

**Note:** Despite the frequent usage, 'urusai' actually means 'noisy', though it can be used as a rude way to ask someone to shut up by exclaiming 'urusai'!

_"Nani!? Ore wa tako atame desu ka?!" --_ "What!? I'm an octopus head?!"

(1) 'Ore', like 'boku', is the male form of saying 'I' or 'me'. Note that Shiroe never uses 'ore' or 'boku', only 'watashi'._  
_

_"Hai! Sou desu!" -- _" Yes! That's right!"_  
_

_"__NANI?! Anata wa urusai de kuso atama desu!" -- _"WHAT?! You're a noisy shit-head!"_  
_

(2) Never refer to someone as 'anata' if you can, it's very direct and extremely rude.

_"Watashi-__KYAH! Saburou-kun! Anata wa BAKA desu!" -- _"I-KYAH! Sabuou! You're an idiot!"

(3) 'Baka' can mean either stupid or idiot, used interchangebly. Note how Shiroe uses 'watashi' to refer to herself.

_"SHIZUKA NI!" -- _"Quiet!"_  
_


End file.
